Not sure if this comes under DIY but hoping it does.
I have a Sky-plus satellite box and cable but recently stopped Sky.
If I have all the required cables for Sky-plus can I just get a Humax Foxsat HD PVR recorder and plug it in or do I need to pay the extra to get someone to 'install' it?
I tried looking it up on the tv/sat experts forums and got baffled by the science and vast lists of special leads/cables/connections.
Maybe someone here can just let me know in easy DIY terms?
Janet
I would point out that installing a satellite dish can be done as a DIY activity. A cheap meter helps, but is not essentail. It is not like plastering which requires skill, or mending your TV where you need both technical knowledge and test equipment.
You can get many of your questions answered by reading the digittlspy forums.
Yes, your Sky digital dish is exactly right for Freesat because it uses exactly the same satellites and signals, only the Electronic Programme Guide is different. The official Freesat website should make this clear, but it doesn't quite do that because of its reluctance to utter the "S" word
Only if you want to pay someone money to plug the cables from the dish into the Humax box...
You do know that your Sky box will function as a "Freesat from Sky" box =
and get you all the "Freesat" channels. You are switching to the Humax t= o get free HD and PVR fuctionality I take it. Is Sky+ still =A310/month ex= tra?
Five and it's offerings are not on "Freesat" and are FTV on "Freesat fro= m Sky" and I don't think all of Channel 4's are FTA (yet).
FTV - Free To View, free for anyone with a Sky box and card but you don'= t need a no subscription to Sky.
FTA - Free To Air, free for anyone to view. No card required.
delivered. Came on stream in the last few days.
On Tue, 03 Mar 2009 07:57:53 +0000 (GMT) someone who may be "Dave Liquorice" wrote this:-
Oh yes they are:-) Well, Channel 5 is certainly on Freesat now and I have a suspicion that the rest of its siblings are too (not bothered to check, that would involve walking upstairs and looking in the Radio Times).
I think they are, but again confirming that would involve going upstairs.
In article , Michael Chare writes
Got the satellite dish thanks and also a cable connection if i needed it. Digital spy forums brought up more questions than answers as the experts bless them, quoted technical terms and reference numbers for weird and wonderful leads and connections. I had absolutely no idea what they were on about:)
In article , Graham. writes
It was the insistence on other forums that you needed different leads than normal or at least you appeared to require more than one lead which didn't come with the actual machine did read the Freesat site and the Digitalspy sites and even Moneysavingexpert. Although we had Sky plus I don't appear to have two cables coming out of the wall and into the box. I just miss the ability to record and see stuff when I want to and to series link programs after having Sky plus for several years. Janet
In article , Dave Liquorice writes
Not HD but the PVR certainly and Series link. The recording facility now doesn't work on my Sky box though we do of course still get the free channels and the Guide. We gave away our video recorder when we got Sky plus.
Well presumably if I ever really wanted to see Five I can watch it online or watch Channel four on the TV upstairs as we still have the old ordinary sky box linked up there and still also get the main channels via the satellite cable on it.
I'll certainly print out the list of FTV and FTA channels and also the Freesat channels to compare now you've mentioned there might be a significant difference Dave. Thank you.
Janet
In article , David Hansen writes
Just checking on the Sky boxes and we seems to get both of those, plus the ITV series etc. Mostly we don't get stuff like Alibi or film channels which is fair enough. I do miss the Discovery and History channels sometimes, or whatever they have now been rebranded/retitled.
Janet
In article , Vortex2 writes
Thanks that's a lot cheaper than John Lewis or some of the other sites.
You've either lost a cable (into the wall?) or you didn't have Sky Plus.
When I installed mine I decided that a meter was too expensive. When I got some sort of signal I realised that there were Strength and Quality bars on the screen, so I used a long mirror leaning against a chair and could see that from outside so could adjust the set-up.
as well.
Or it was installed with the so called "shotgun" co-ax cable that is actually two co-ax cables joined side by side in a figure of 8 style pattern. Often used by sky installers.
In article , Mike writes
Definitely had Sky plus but of the two cables coming through the wall one seems to be a cable that they insisted we plug into the Telephone socket. Have only two leads into television one thick one with aerial type connection and one very thick blue one with scart lead connection.
Janet
In article , John Rumm writes
Will that make a difference?
Does the satellite cable have two plugs on the end of it? If not, I don't see how you could have used the Sky+ box properly. If it does then you have a double cored lead.
AIUI, unlike terrestial TV, you have to have a separate aerial lead for each tuner. If you really only have the one single cored lead then you won't have been able to watch one program whilst recording another. The Humax box has two inputs for the two sattelite feeds and I dare say that the Sky+ box is the same.
It's not what's going into the TV that's important at this stage, it's what's going into the back of your Sky+ box.
Have a look at the back of it. Does it have two satellite input connections? Do they have plugs connected to both of them?
Tim
In article , Tim Downie writes
We could definitely record two programmes at the same time . Necessary of course due to the timetables set up by the TV companies!
Cough splutter, having delved under the assortment of cables, leads and aerial connections i indeed have surfaced with TWO leads to the Sky box from the wall, one lead from Sky to DVD recorder/player and one lead from Sky to TV, one lead from roof aerial to TV (in case we lost the satellite reception) and one lead with no end on it. Oh, and 2 dog biscuits, three Christmas cards, a pound coin and two wrappers from a box of quality street.
So I seem to have the requisite number of leads ...................
Oh well that's okay then. Thanks a lot, I feel more confident that i don't need to pay an engineer to bring out the special cables always assuming that the ones that go into the Sky box will also fit the Humax?
Now all I have to do is to check whether Dave was correct in thinking that Freesat will exclude some channels. And I've got a lovely clean carpet under the TV now ............
Janet
They're standard connections (well at least the Sky box ones and the Humax are the same). A friend of mine did this swap (or rather, I did it for him) just two weeks ago.
I'm sure the full line-up is on the net somewhere. Compared to Terrestial Freeview, you'll be missing UKHistory & Dave (the channel). You will though get the free HD channels and probably a few others.
Tim
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